Because this week turns out to be an especially busy one for me, I've decided to do some easy blogging and point to what others have written that have changed my mind in a significant way on a current issue.
#1 How many people without health care insurance should I worry about.
The U.S. Census says that 46.6 million persons are uninsured.
9.5 million of those are not citizens, so we don't have a responsibility to see that they are insured. Only 37.1 million left.
The U.S. Census reports that 8.74 million of the uninsured make more that $75k a year. Another 8.3 million of the uninsured make between $50k and $75k. That's another 17 million I don't have to worry about since they can afford their own health insurance. Even when I haven't had any income, I paid for my own health insurance.
So that leaves about 20 million without health insurance but who are still able to get emergency room healthcare for free.
...If we believe the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is a frequent source for the mainstream media, Americans who do not qualify for current government programs and who make less than $50,000 a year total somewhere between 13.9 million and 8.2 million, no more than 5 percent of the population. Furthermore, according to the Congressional Budget Office, 45 percent of uninsured people will be uninsured for less than four months.
Which brings us to the ultimate question: Does it make any sense to destroy a health care system that 5 out of 100 people do not have adequate access to?